Ensuring location of an individual or item within a designated area is often of major concern to medical facilities. Certain medical conditions require constant monitoring of the individual to ensure proper health. In addition, certain medical conditions of individuals may affect the memory of the individuals, thereby requiring monitoring of the location of individuals at all times to prevent the individuals from leaving the facility and becoming lost. An example of such an illness is Alzheimer's disease.
In addition, medical equipment is a shared resource and knowing location saves time. Specifically, since most medical equipment is mobile and could be in a number of locations, the ability to keep unwarranted removal of medical equipment maintains the medical equipment to designated areas and is a deterrent to theft.
Further, medical facilities having a maternity ward hold babies within the maternity ward while performing different medical procedures to ensure that the child is healthy and in condition to proceed home with his/her new family. While in the maternity ward, babies are typically provided with a band having a transmitter thereon that is capable of being detected if the baby is carried past a predetermined area. As an example, a detector may be located on the outside of a door to the maternity ward so that if a baby is carried outside of the maternity ward, the transmitter on the baby is detected and an alarm may be sounded.
Unfortunately, it is quite common that a band that has been secured to a baby for the above-mentioned security purposes, falls off of the baby. As an example, the band may be too loose, or, through movement of the baby, the band may fall off. In addition, a nurse securing the band to the baby may not have secured a clasp correctly and the band may simply fall off of the baby. Further, someone may remove the band intentionally so as to be able to remove the baby from the maternity ward without notification to security by the alarm. Unfortunately, if the band falls off of the baby, the only way to ensure location of the baby within the maternity ward is through sight.
To address the problem of band removal, facilities such as the maternity ward quite often have entry and exit points locked at all times. While entry and exit points of the facility may be locked at all times, individuals seeking entry into the maternity ward may gain entry by many different methods, such as, holding a door open before it shuts, stealing or replicating a security card to access the room, or forcing their way into the maternity ward.
Thus, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the industry to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.